FC 8 on Alpha question: GNU linker "ld -taso" option?

[Jim McCarthy]

Hello --

Browsing here ...

http://buildsys.zero42.at/mash/f8/alpha/os/Packages/

...I find that FC 8 on Alpha includes "binutils-2.17.50" (maybe take my word
for it, since the long list of packages takes a while to load :-).  I
believe the GNU linker "ld" resides inside the binutils package.

Looking here ...

http://sourceware.org/binutils/docs-2.17/ld/Machine-Dependent.html#Machine-D
ependent

...I don't see any "alpha" machine-dependent linker options in the standard
binutils release.  Can someone tell me if, as part of the FC 8 port to
Alpha, were there are any machine=alpha -dependent options (re)introduced
for the GNU linker, ld ?

On my DEC PWS 600au (Miata), I'm currently still using Red Hat 7.2 for
Alpha.  The alpha version of binutils has a linker option "ld -taso" that
restricts executable code to the lower 32-bit range of memory (< 2Gb), such
that pointer address values can be manipulated as 32-bit int values.   I use
a large data analysis package written originally for VAX/VMS, and later
ported to RISC/unix and then x86/Linux, and 32-bit integers are used
throughout to hold pointer address values.  With some expert assistance
years ago, I was able to build this under RH7.2 for Alpha relatively
painlessly by adding "-Wl,-taso" to the gcc options list (which simply
passes the "-taso" switch along to the linker).

So my question is, if I upgrade to the latest FC 8 for Alpha, will I lose
this machine-dependent linker option for alpha with the latest "binutils" in
FC 8 ??

Arguably this would be "good medicine" and motivation to properly upgrade
the IA32 data analysis package's source codes to allow (enforce) 64-bit
pointers on all 64-bit architectures (Alpha, ia64 = Itanium, AMD64, EM64T,
etc.) -- a very sizeable effort [somewhere between "daunting" and
"monumental" for me by myself] but one that would no doubt pay future
dividends....  Still, I'd appreciate knowing if in the meantime the new FC 8
on Alpha might have the "-taso" shortcut I could use to get up-and-running
quickly after upgrading from RH7.2 Alpha.

Thanks,

     -- Jim